dana hilliot and his friends : i was a rabbit and i won (ar012)

How should we define the Dana hilliot's personality with a few words? That's an amazing game, but it seems that a biography would be more suitable for such a character, or maybe an epitaph, to make it truly short. Well, let's say in bulk and without any hierarchy: Dana Hilliot... Low-fi storyteller, slow-core crooner, indie-folk ambassador, soft-porno songwriter, serial-lover, serial-loser, ex-punk who became a neo-hippie, joyful depressive person, prince of his own darkness, and pretty rough guitarist... The songs of Mr Hilliot wear a serious background on their shoulders, and they won't try to deny it. Yet, this background never changes into a burden: everything is said with a few lines, just the essentials, three minimalistic chords and a steady voice without settings, nor pathos. In his music, grief can be blunt or bucolic, anyway it remains expiating most of the time. Every exhumed memory calls for redemption, so Dana sings his ghosts _ particularly women_, ghosts of fifteen years sometimes, that he lets revive without tearing, nor bitterness. And of course, there is grace too, liveliness, desire, in a corner of nature, earthly or feminine nature... A celebration of timeless feelings, a semblance of inner peace, even if troubles are never really far with that tender schizophrenic guy. That's probably why he decided to invite other musicians on his first album, to feel a little less alone in front of his many internal demons... Therefore, the recordings took place with an occasional band (after a series of solo demos), in April 2004. The crasy idea was to gather six people in two rooms, without a window, for three days. Dana called his friends (Delphine Dori, Jullian Angel, Lunt, The wedding soundtrack, Half asleep) and explained his idea to them. The friends liked the idea, heaven knows why... But the idea was especially to extract a dozen of tracks from master Dana, and transform them to various degrees. Here is the result : 50 minutes of spontaneous folk, dark, troubled, softly delirious sometimes. Now and then, voices start multiplying and the instrumentation grows in size. Actually, the friends did a great job, gathered this way in two rooms, without a window, for three days... Three days, without watching the sun (or hardly), three days attempting to achieve the idea as well as possible. It seems that work does always pay, since the idea has been given a name now, " I was a rabbit and I won ", wholly graved on a round material...